AACB Congratulates New Minister for Tourism
The Association of Australian Convention Bureaux (AACB), congratulates Senator the Hon Richard Colbeck on his appointment as Minister for Tourism and International Education.
With the business events sector in Australia currently worth $13 billion (Tourism Research Australia, year ending December 2014), the AACB is keen to work with the new Minister in order to achieve the Tourism 2020 target of $16 billion.
In 2014, Deloitte Access Economics described the sector as a high-value, fast-growing component of Australia’s visitor economy, with days by international delegates growing at twice the pace of overall visitation over the last four years and expenditure growing nearly five times faster.
AACB President, Lyn Lewis-Smith said, “We thank the Hon Andrew Robb AO MP, Minister for Trade and Investment, for his recognition and understanding of the benefits that business events bring over and above their immediate economic contribution.
“Through Minister Robb’s leadership, the framework ‘Attracting Business to Australia: The Role of Government Agencies’ was launched, delivering on the Coalition’s 2013 pre-election commitment to provide consular and ministerial backing for bids for key international conference.
“Moving forward, Ministers Robb and Bishop will continue to be important advocates for the business events sector within Cabinet, acknowledging the important contribution that they play in economic diplomacy and fostering trade and investment outcomes.”
In alignment with Prime Minister Turnbull’s vision that “the Australia of the future has to be a nation that is agile, that is innovative, that is creative,” AACB promotes business events as a key mechanism to stimulate economic growth through the knowledge economy.
AACB has been a strong advocate for the “beyond tourism” benefits of business events, such as: attracting global talent, knowledge transfer, fostering innovation, boosting productivity and nurturing research collaboration.
As such, we also look forward to engaging with the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, as the newly appointed Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, as well as:
• The Hon Wyatt Roy MP, Assistant Minister for Innovation,
• The Hon Karen Andrews MP, Assistant Minister for Science, and
• The Hon Dr Peter Hendy MP, Assistant Minister for Productivity.